The week in charts: Anthropic’s IPO, falling air traffic and Ather’s return to profit

In this weekly Plain Facts compilation, we present to you data based insights, with easy to read charts, to help you delve deeper into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by.

From Anthropic PBC preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) to domestic air passenger traffic posting its steepest September decline since the covid-19 pandemic, Ather Energy Ltd turning profitable, domestic workers worldwide earning less relative to other employees, and Harry Kane becoming the first English player since 2001 to win the men’s Ballon d’Or, here are this week’s news in numbers.

Anthropic’s IPO code

Five-year-old generative artificial intelligence company Anthropic publicly filed for an IPO in the US, providing new financial details on the scale, scope, and challenges of its ambitious operation.

In the June quarter, Anthropic posted revenues of $11.55 billion, up from $4.73 billion in the March quarter. The company behind the Claude models also posted its maiden operating profit, of $974 million. Its operating loss for the six months stood at $693 million.

Some current and prospective investors are valuing Anthropic at about $1.5 trillion, down from roughly $2 trillion earlier in October. The lower estimate still represents an increase of more than 50% from the $965 billion valuation at its May funding round.

Losing ground

Domestic air passenger traffic fell for the fourth straight month in September. Passenger numbers stood at 11.82 million, down from 12.64 million a year ago. This was the steepest year-on-year decline since the pandemic.

September is traditionally a lean month for airlines, but weaker demand has coincided with higher airfares and capacity cuts as carriers grapple with rising fuel costs linked to the West Asia war.

In Delhi, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices rose nearly 25% in three months, from about ₹110 a litre in July to ₹137 on 1 October. The increase is adding to airlines’ costs, with carriers raising fuel surcharges and reducing capacity.

Electric turnaround

Electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy reported its maiden quarterly net profit in the September quarter. Amid a brisk pick-up in electric vehicle sales, its operating revenue rose 63% year-on-year to ₹1,464 crore, while net profit stood at ₹1.26 crore.

In the last 10 quarters, Ather has crafted a consistent drive towards profitability. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) margin improved from a loss of 35.6% in Q1 of FY25 to a positive margin of 0.8% in Q2 of FY27.

Even as Ather’s production grew 45% to 98,400 units, the management said monthly retail demand of 18,000-20,000 units remained unmet due to supply constraints.

Numbers Talk

21%: The premium over the issue price at which Jio Platforms Ltd's shares listed on the stock exchanges, giving the telecom major a market capitalization of about ₹12.5 trillion, second only to parent Reliance Industries Ltd.

6.7%: Year-on-year growth in India’s industrial production in September, down from a revised 7.8% in August. Manufacturing and electricity output growth moderated, while mining activity contracted further.

$27 billion: The amount raised by global private equity firm Advent International for its 11th flagship fund, exceeding its $26 billion target. It also raised more than $3 billion for its new mid-market strategy.

$20 million: The amount provisionally allocated to Nepal by the UN’s Fund for responding to loss and damage following the devastating August floods. The allocation is less than 1% of the estimated reconstruction cost.

35: The number of balls India’s Abhishek Sharma took to score a century against New Zealand in the third T20 international, setting a record for the fastest T20I century against the Black Caps.

Widening disparity

Domestic workers worldwide earned an average of just 53.3% of the average monthly wage of other employees across all other sectors in 2025, down from 56.4% in 2019.

According to a statistical brief released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on 27 October, this points to a widening relative wage gap. While the brief did not release country-level data, it provided estimates by income group. Domestic workers earned 53.7% of other employees’ average monthly wages in high-income countries, 56.6% in middle-income countries and 36% in low-income countries.

The study estimates that 80 million people aged 15 and above were employed as domestic workers worldwide in 2025, including cleaners, helpers, drivers and cooks. About 83% of them were informally employed, without effective labour and social protection.

Golden moment

Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane became the first English player to win the men’s Ballon d’Or—football’s top individual prize—since Michael Owen in 2001.

He is the fifth Englishman to win the award, though English players have won it six times, with Kevin Keegan claiming it twice. The other winners were Bobby Charlton and Stanley Matthews. Argentina and France are tied with eight wins each.

Kane beat France’s Kylian Mbappe and Spain’s Lamine Yamal to the award. Kane scored 73 goals in 65 matches during the 2025-26 season, including 61 for Bayern Munich.

Among individual players, Lionel Messi of Argentina has won it the most times (eight), followed by Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (five). Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for the third time in her career this year.

www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for public data.

About the Author

Howindialives.com is a Delhi-based venture set up by former business journalists to combine public data and technology for decision-making. We cover the entire data chain: collect data; process, interpret and visualize it; and design outputs. We have been a data partner to Mint since 2015, narrating data stories and more.